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This 2-way traffic flow hasn't worked

The Lowell Sun

Updated:
06/17/2013 09:53:06 AM EDT

This is a reply to Joseph D. Sawyer's letter of Saturday, June 8.

Regarding the existing one-way downtown traffic plan on Merrimack and Market streets, I thought it went back earlier than 1973. Mr. Sawyer indicates that he was involved in its design, so if he says it was 1973, I am happy to take him at his word.

However, regarding the one-way design that used to exist on Appleton and lower Middlesex streets, I do have to question that date. In 1979 I worked as an all-night taxicab driver in Lowell, for A&L Taxi. In my travels I logged many, many hours on those two streets. And I recall definitely, unmistakably, that both of those streets were two-way in 1979 -- Middlesex, from Pearl Street inbound to Gorham; and Appleton, for its entire length from Towers Corner to the Lord Overpass. I am absolutely certain that the one-way pattern on those two streets began after 1979.

I don't see that we have derived any great benefit from restoring two-way traffic on Appleton and Lower Middlesex.

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